6 Mistakes to Avoid When Marketing Your eCommerce Mobile App

Now that you have built your dream mobile commerce app, what is your next step? Have you still made it available in the market? For that, you need to market your app. However, do you know how many apps are available in Google Play Store as of this Sept 2017? There has been a tremendous growth since 2009. Let us look at the Graph below. Where in December 2009 there were only 16000 Apps, in September 2017 they have recoded 3.3 million apps to available for the users across the globe.

When there are so many apps available, some definitely have to be the most popular ones that are downloaded the most by the app users. A research by Statista showed us a clear picture of most popular Apps worldwide in May 2016.

These are the most popular apps that we are also using. Whatsapp has 41.2 million downloads and is popular among all age groups. Is your app falling in one of the above categories? If yes, have you done your research on them, to create a better app experience for your users?

What are the mistakes you are making and that you need avoid? Let us know more about them in detail.

6 Mistakes You Need to Avoid

Selling Features & Not Benefits

Not Living Upto your Promises on app performance

Planning strategies without research

No Study on Competitors Apps

Test the App in the App store Before its Completion

Assuming that Users Who Download will Definitely Use it

1. Selling Features & Not Benefits

All app developers have a technical background; hence pointing out the technical features is what you get from them. One of the biggest mistakes app companies make is of highlighting the features of the ecommerce mobile app, instead of talking about the benefits. You need to strategize your marketing plan, in which you talk about the exciting things the app can do and how it is going to benefit its users. Highlighting features might show that you are aiming at specific group of people. However, since you want more users you need to highlight its benefits. This will allow others to try your app.

2. Not Living Upto your Promises on app performance

When you start the marketing of your new app, you highlight what the app can do for them. The users download the app not because of the features, but because of how it can ease their daily life. They will expect the app be as you showed in the presentation and ads, if it does not live up to your promises then the apps downfall would start right there. Soon you will soon start receiving negative reviews, which is not good for apps. Here is an example of a Beauty App- Beautylish. If you do not want your app to have, negative reviews you must make sure you deliver what you say. Promises are meant to be kept and not to be broken.

3. Planning strategies without research

Sometimes it is astonishing that marketing people plan strategies based on what they feel. They forget that they need to capture a market and for that, they need to do their research and collect data accordingly. Do not make decisions on your experiences but make decisions based on the current scenario and market trends. Get your facts corrected to what kind of marketing will work you kind of app, accordingly plan the strategy, don’t jump to decisions or your mCommerce mobile app will start to fall in the wrong direction. Think before you leap.

4. No Study on Competitors Apps

When you develop your app and it is ready to be out in the market, the biggest mistake you may make is launch it without knowing about the competing apps. You need to make sure you have done a proper research and study on your competitor’s apps to see what they offering. Offering same features might not entice your audience. You need to make sure app is solving the same problems like other apps, but in a different and easy way. You can choose a different target group to get better results than what your competitor chose.

5. Test the App in the App store before its Completion

All developers are excited to test the app in the app store while they are still completing it, which can lead to problems. Apps stores like Apple App store are always looking out for new apps for their users, hence when you launch your app in the app store it is incomplete and Apple will ship the new incomplete app to your users. Now, since your app is not complete and is still in testing mode, your users will be downloading the incomplete app. This will get you only negative reviews. Do not publish the app before the private testing.

6. Assuming that Users who download will definitely Use it

It is wrong to assume that all the users who have downloaded the app are going to use it. They might have downloaded the app, but if their experience is not good then they will stop using the app. You need to keep a track after the user downloads it to track actions and get feedback from time to time. This way you can work on giving better user experience.

Conclusion

Mobile App Marketing may sound very easy, but this is a very challenging task. In addition, here if you do not plan and market your app, your marketing strategies might fetch you only negative reviews. For a successful app, you must have a well planned and research marketing plan, in which you consider all the aspects.

Abhishek Agarwal is the Co-founder & CEO of MobiCommerce, Design‘N’Buy and OhoShop. MobiCommerce is specialized in building Mobile Commerce App. With an entrepreneurial experience of 14 years, he is a visionary who proactively looks out for the next big thing. Being in the industry for more than a decade, he is well versed with trends in the market and love to write about them.